World's ugliest mutt pops paws

The three-legged, one-eyed hairless Chinese crested known as Gus, and internationally famous as the world's ugliest mutt, succumbed on Monday to skin cancer at the age of nine, Florida's St. Petersburg Timesreports.

Owner Jeanenne Teed, of Gulfport, rescued Gus when he was a puppy. His hideous bald countenance was perfectly complemented by liver spots, a missing eye which fell to a cat and a canine tripod posture necessitated by the lack of one leg.

In June this year, Gus hit the headlines worldwide by beating all comers at the Sonoma-Marin County Fair in California to claim the planet's least attractive pooch crown, and subsequently travelled to New York for the usual round of chat shows.

Sadly, cancer finally did for the devil dog, who had to be put down when he began struggling to breathe. Nonetheless, Teed said of her former companion: "He took me to amazing places. Who would have thought, that one little dog with no hair..."